Imprints of recoiling massive black holes on the hot gas of early-type galaxies

Anisotropic gravitational radiation from a coalescing black hole (BH) binary is known to impart recoil velocities of up to  ∼1000 km s⁻¹  to the remnant BH. In this context, we study the motion of a recoiling BH inside a galaxy modelled as a Hernquist sphere, and the signature that the hole imprints on the hot gas, using N -body/smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations. Ejection of the BH results in a sudden expansion of the gas ending with the formation of a gaseous core, similarly to what is seen for the stars. A cometary tail of particles bound to the BH is initially released along its trail. As the BH moves on a return orbit, a nearly spherical swarm of hot gaseous particles forms at every apocentre: this feature can live up to ≈10⁸ years. If the recoil velocity exceeds the sound speed initially, the BH shocks the gas in the form of a Mach cone in density near each supersonic pericentric passage. We find that the X-ray fingerprint of a recoiling BH can be detected in Chandra X-ray maps out to a distance of Virgo. For exceptionally massive BHs, the Mach cone and the wakes can be observed out to a few hundred of milliparsec. The detection of the Mach cone is of twofold importance as it can be a probe of high-velocity recoils, and an assessment of the scatter of the   M _BH− M _bulge  relation at large BH masses.     

The formation of submillisecond pulsars and the possibility of detection

Pulsars have been recognized to be normal neutron stars, but sometimes have been argued to be quark stars. Submillisecond pulsars, if detected, would play an essential and important role in distinguishing quark stars from neutron stars. We focus on the formation of such submillisecond pulsars in this paper. A new approach to the formation of a submillisecond pulsar (quark star) by means of the accretion-induced collapse (AIC) of a white dwarf is investigated. Under this AIC process, we found that: (i) almost all newborn quark stars could have an initial spin period of ∼0.1 ms; (ii) nascent quark stars (even with a low mass) have a sufficiently high spin-down luminosity and satisfy the conditions for pair production and sparking process and appear as submillisecond radio pulsars; (iii) in most cases, the times of newborn quark stars in the phase with spin period <1 (or <0.5) ms are long enough for the stars to be detected.
As a comparison, an accretion spin-up process (for both neutron and quark stars) is also investigated. It is found that quark stars formed through the AIC process can have shorter periods (≤0.5 ms), whereas the periods of neutron stars formed in accretion spin-up processes must be longer than 0.5 ms. Thus, if a pulsar with a period shorter than 0.5 ms is identified in the future, it could be a quark star.     

AzTEC Millimetre Survey of the COSMOS field – II. Source count overdensity and correlations with large-scale structure

We report an overdensity of bright submillimetre galaxies (SMGs) in the 0.15 deg² AzTEC/COSMOS survey and a spatial correlation between the SMGs and the optical-IR galaxy density at   z ≲ 1.1  . This portion of the COSMOS field shows a  ∼3σ  overdensity of robust SMG detections when compared to a background, or 'blank-field', population model that is consistent with SMG surveys of fields with no extragalactic bias. The SMG overdensity is most significant in the number of very bright detections (14 sources with measured fluxes   S _1.1 mm > 6  mJy), which is entirely incompatible with sample variance within our adopted blank-field number densities and infers an overdensity significance of  ≫ 4σ  . We find that the overdensity and spatial correlation to optical-IR galaxy density are most consistent with lensing of a background SMG population by foreground mass structures along the line of sight, rather than physical association of the SMGs with the   z ≲ 1.1  galaxies/clusters. The SMG positions are only weakly correlated with weak-lensing maps, suggesting that the dominant sources of correlation are individual galaxies and the more tenuous structures in the survey region, and not the massive and compact clusters. These results highlight the important roles cosmic variance and large-scale structure can play in the study of SMGs.     

tempo2: a new pulsar timing package – III. Gravitational wave simulation

Analysis of pulsar timing data sets may provide the first direct detection of gravitational waves. This paper, the third in a series describing the mathematical framework implemented into the tempo2 pulsar timing package, reports on using tempo2 to simulate the timing residuals induced by gravitational waves. The tempo2 simulations can be used to provide upper bounds on the amplitude of an isotropic, stochastic, gravitational wave background in our Galaxy and to determine the sensitivity of a given pulsar timing experiment to individual, supermassive, binary black hole systems.     

X-ray and strong lensing mass estimate of MS2137.3–2353

We present new mass estimates of the cluster of galaxies MS2137.3–2353, inferred from X-ray and strong lensing analyses. This cluster exhibits an outstanding strong lensing configuration and indicates a well-relaxed dynamical state, being most suitable for a mass reconstruction which combines both techniques. Despite this, several previous studies have claimed a significant discrepancy between the X-ray and the strong lensing mass estimates. The primary aim of this paper is to address and explain this mismatch. For this purpose, we have analysed Chandra observations to recover the profiles of the intracluster medium properties and, assuming a functional form for the matter density, the total mass distribution. The notable strong-lensing features of MS2137.3 allow us to reconstruct its projected mass in the central regions with good accuracy, by taking advantage of the lensing inversion code lenstool . We compare the results obtained for both methods. Our mass estimates for MS2137.3 are in agreement within errors, leading to a mean, extrapolated value of   M ₂₀₀≃ 4.4 ± 0.3 × 10¹⁴ M_⊙  , under the assumption of the Navarro–Frenk–White (NFW) mass profile. However, the strong lensing mass estimate is affected by the details of the brightest cluster galaxy mass modelling, since the radial arc is a very sensitive probe of the total mass derivative in the central region. In particular, we do not find evidence for a high concentration for the NFW density profile, as reported in some earlier works.     

Galaxy density profiles and shapes – II. Selection biases in strong lensing surveys

Many current and future astronomical surveys will rely on samples of strong gravitational lens systems to draw conclusions about galaxy mass distributions. We use a new strong lensing pipeline (presented in Paper I of this series) to explore selection biases that may cause the population of strong lensing systems to differ from the general galaxy population. Our focus is on point-source lensing by early-type galaxies with two mass components (stellar and dark matter) that have a variety of density profiles and shapes motivated by observational and theoretical studies of galaxy properties. We seek not only to quantify but also to understand the physics behind selection biases related to: galaxy mass, orientation and shape; dark matter profile parameters such as inner slope and concentration; and adiabatic contraction. We study how all of these properties affect the lensing Einstein radius, total cross-section, quad/double ratio and image separation distribution, with a flexible treatment of magnification bias to mimic different survey strategies. We present our results for two families of density profiles: cusped and deprojected Sérsic models. While we use fixed lens and source redshifts for most of the analysis, we show that the results are applicable to other redshift combinations, and we also explore the physics of how our results change for very different redshifts. We find significant (factors of several) selection biases with mass; orientation, for a given galaxy shape at fixed mass; cusped dark matter profile inner slope and concentration; concentration of the stellar and dark matter deprojected Sérsic models. Interestingly, the intrinsic shape of a galaxy does not strongly influence its lensing cross-section when we average over viewing angles. Our results are an important first step towards understanding how strong lens systems relate to the general galaxy population.     

Gravitational wave radiation from a double white dwarf system inside our galaxy： a potential method for seeking strange dwarfs

Like the investigation of double white dwarf （DWD） systems, strange dwarf （SD） - white dwarf （WD） system evolution in Laser Interferometer Space Antenna （LISA）＇s absolute amplitude-frequency diagram is investigated. Since there is a strange quark core inside an SD, SDs＇ radii are significantly smaller than the value predicted by the standard WD model, which may strongly affect the gravitational wave （GW） signal in the mass-transferring phases of binary systems. We study how an SD-WD binary evolves across LISA＇s absolute amplitude-frequency diagram. In principle, we provide an executable way to detect SDs in the Galaxy＇s DWD systems by radically new windows offered by GW detectors.     

热带气旋螺旋云带动力不稳定的性质

热带气旋螺旋云带的不对称特征,在热带气旋的路径和强度变化中起着重要作用,对其动力性质的研究是整个热带气旋研究中的重要组成部分.文中分别对一个正压无辐散涡旋模型和正压原始方程涡旋模型进行线性化,采用标准模方法计算扰动的谱点和谱函数,研究扰动在基本流场中的不稳定问题,从而讨论了热带气旋中螺旋云带动力不稳定的性质.将一指定的基流廓线代入这两个模型,均会出现不稳定扰动.前者的流动为涡旋运动,仅在不稳定扰动的两个峰值之间可以看出螺旋状的结构特征,在距涡旋中心140 km的外围,不稳定扰动沿径向没有波动分布,没有螺旋云带状结构.此处相应于涡旋Rossby波的停滞半径(stagnation radius),在此半径之内出现的螺旋结构称为内螺旋云带,而在此半径之外出现的螺旋云带称为外螺旋云带.也就是说前者仅出现了眼壁(最大风速半径之内的最大扰动中心)、内螺旋云带,而后者则出现了眼壁、内螺旋云带和外螺旋云带.这说明滤去重力惯性波的正压无辐散涡旋模型(前者)只适合于解释热带气旋不稳定内螺旋云带的形成和结构,当综合考虑不稳定内、外螺旋云带的形成时,水平辐合、辐散的作用不能忽略,此时必须要用正压涡旋模型(后者).在该模型中因最不稳定扰动随涡旋半径的不同,其分别体现了涡旋Rossby波和重力惯性波的特点,故其是不稳定的涡旋Rossby-重力惯性混合波,其不稳定的性质是非平衡的.由此可知,要同时解释内、外螺旋云带的生成和结构,则非平衡的涡旋Rossby-重力惯性混合波不稳定理论应是更合适的选择.     

新生代渤海中部强烈沉降的物理条件和深部过程

新生代时期渤海中部的强烈沉降,是多种物理条件的共同作用结果,这些条件是由裂谷期和后裂谷期的深部过程产生成的.裂谷期在异常热地幔背景下的渤海地壳隆起、减薄、张裂,地幔热物质上升侵入地壳,莫霍界面位置升高,积累了重力势能;后裂谷期岩石圈（层）的冷却、收缩及下地壳的相变导致密度增大,加上巨厚沉积物的持续增生,使地壳处于重力不平衡状态,向下的垂直力远大于向上的浮托力,同时还有东部后退位移性板块边界和下地壳侧向流动的支持,使渤海中部成为下沉速率最快、沉降幅度最大的凹陷盆地.后裂谷期的早期的盆地下沉具有分散、局部性特征,表现为多个凹陷和凸起交替组合格局;晚期转变为大范围的整体沉降,显示重力均衡和补偿过程是从浅往深发展的.先存的郯庐断裂带对沉降的空间范围有局部边界控制性作用,其本身可能受到盆地发展的强烈改造影响.盆地的基本变形机制是上地壳的水平向脆性张破裂和垂直向或近垂直向的正断层-剪切破裂,地震震源机制解和大地震时的地表破裂表现的水平错动反映中、下地壳的走滑-平移型应力状态及相应的瞬间水平剪切破裂,它与上地壳残留的伸展、下沉相容并存于三维地壳体内.